


As Is Written

by calcetineys



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: M/M, The Notebook AU, ambiguous ending, but yall know how it goes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-14
Updated: 2020-01-14
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:22:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22248589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calcetineys/pseuds/calcetineys
Summary: “I remember this,” Stiles says the wordrememberlike it’s the best thing he’s ever done.
Relationships: Theo Raeken/Stiles Stilinski
Comments: 3
Kudos: 51





	As Is Written

**Author's Note:**

> I’m not gonna do the whole movie and I’ve made some changes because even I have an angst limit. The story that’s written in the notebook would be their story like it happens in the show, but with them ending up together.

They probably could have brushed off the first time Stiles forgets his address; they could have if they were anyone else. But they don’t, because they had always known this was a possibility, and they have plans, they have plans in case this happens.

He knows himself, knows who he used to be, who Theo used to be to him, remembers how hard it was for their relationship to change. Knows that if his mind goes back to those days, then it’s going to be just like that.  


If he’s lucky, he’ll go back to those days.  


He doesn’t count on being lucky.

He remembers the days when their first plan was for him to take the Bite, despite how much he wants to stay human. But it’s been decades since Beacon Hills, about five of them, and trying to take the Bite at his age is a death sentence. There still isn’t a medical fix, nothing that can do more than delay the inevitable. 

All they can do is delay the inevitable. 

But the inevitable comes, and Theo carries out the plan they can still do, reading their story as Stiles wrote it down for them both, reading to his husband the story of their life that he doesn’t remember, reading until he does remember, if only for an hour, if only for a minute. 

It makes Theo smiles, how Stiles will accept the werewolves and magic of their story, but will say in the beginning, “He’s not actually gonna trust this guy, right? He’s obviously the villain!”

“Just wait,” Theo has said on so many days, his mouth pulling into a smile at the exasperation on Stiles’ face. 

Some days Stiles doesn’t actually remember, but he left himself hints in the story to nudge him into realizing this isn’t fiction. Some days he side-eyes Theo, but lets him go on reading, so he can see how this ends, can see if the pieces his past self offers actually make a complete picture. 

Some days, after Theo has finished the story, he’ll say, “That was you.”

Theo doesn’t deny it. 

And Stiles realizes that if one of them was Theo, then he’d have no reason to read this to Stiles unless Stiles was the other person in this story. Some days he reacts with hostility, others with curiosity, some days he doesn’t say anything but lets Theo sit with him until he has to leave. 

The days where Stiles remembers get farther and fewer between, but Theo stays, telling their children when they ask him to come home that he already is, that his husband is here and so he is home.  


-  


He has their story memorized, but it’s still his favorite book. 

He had always known what Stiles was thinking, could always read him, but to read his thoughts written out so directly, the way he felt, the way he loved Theo though he rarely said so in those exact words, the way he essentially handed Theo his entire self when he handed over the copy of their story, a version of himself for Theo could hold when the original couldn’t make it back to Theo.  


-  


“Whoever wrote this was really into enemies to lovers trope,” Stiles observes on one of those side-eye days. 

Theo would point out that they were never _really_ enemies, but he decides to ask, unable to stop his smile, “What makes you think they’re going to become lovers?”

Stiles flushes, because he’d never grown out of that, and Theo can tell he wants to say it’s kind of obvious (which it is) but it’s obvious in a way that makes it unlikely to _actually_ happen. He’s only at the night of the super moon, nothing explicitly romantic- by general romance standard at least- has happened between them yet, and wouldn’t for a while. 

“Well,” Stiles says, still embarrassed, “Aren’t they?”

Like he’s picked up on the fact that they should be together, that he recognizes something in the protagonist that _fits_ with the antagonist, like he sees how this is meant to play out. 

“Yeah,” Theo says softly. “Yeah, they are.”  


-  


“Okay, so you’re telling me this guy remembered him when no one else, even his _father,_ did?” Stiles asks indignantly as they walk through the garden.

“That’s what it says,” Theo tells him, not bothering hiding the smile at how angry Stiles is on his own behalf. It’s cute. Plus it means that Stiles is identifying with himself in the story, which is usually a good sign for him remembering by the end.  


“It doesn’t make any sense.”  


“Why?” Theo asks.  


“Well-“ Stiles scoffs. “They weren’t friends or anything.”  


“Probably for the best, since even his friends forgot.”  


Stiles isn’t amused.  


“He did say that he’d come back for him, that he’d look out for him,” Theo says.  


“Yeah, when he was trying to deceive them all,” Stiles counters.  


“Not all,” Theo says, and Stiles opens his mouth, but no argument comes out.  


-  


Theo cherishes every moment he has with Stiles, every morning he gets up and sees that Stiles has woken up as well. Every moment he gets to look at him, talk to him, watch him react to their story.  


But he has to unlearn fifty-five years of habits, of pulling his husband close, of kissing him, of sharing space, of sleeping next to him, of talking about things that Stiles wouldn’t understand anymore.  


Some days Stiles is so far away and it _kills_ him. He knows it’s what Stiles needs, knows it’s for the best, but it kills him.  


It’s for the best, and that knowledge lets him stand when the disappointment and weariness have left his bones weak.  


Lets him stand in place because he isn’t going anywhere.  


-  


“It’s almost… anticlimactic,” Stiles says, as Theo nears the end, as the two in the story finally end up together.  


“I like how it was simple,” Theo says. “They deserved a happy ending.”  


“Yeah,” Stiles mumbles.  


Theo looks over at him, watches as he thinks about the ending.  


After a long while, Stiles asks, “So what do you think happens to them after?”  


“I have some ideas,” Theo says, thinking of their children and grandchildren.  


“Yeah?” Stiles asks, leaning forward toward him without seeming to realize. “Like what?”  


“Like… traveling, always going somewhere new because their real home is each other.”  


“That’s cheesy,” Stiles says, but he doesn't sound derisive.  


“I mean, they also probably fuck in motel rooms too, so,” Theo says.  


He doesn’t try to hide his smile at Stiles’ red face.  


-  


“ _He tries to put it out of his head, because it’s only going to ruin him, he can tell, and his mind has been ruined enough-_ “  


“Theo.”  


He stops reading.  


“Theo.”  


He looks up, finds Stiles staring at him.  


“Theo.”

“Stiles,” he breathes out, already moving toward him, already pulling him close, already breathing in a way that he hasn’t since the last time he held Stiles. “You made it back.”

“Where did I go?” Stiles asks, his voice shaking, but he knows, because he always knows. Theo can feel the hands clutching the back of his sweater shake, feels Stiles pull away enough to look at the room around them, the generic bedroom with its generic wallpaper and bedding and the inescapable smell of disinfectant that lingers in every health institution.

“No,” Stiles whispers, because he knows. “ _No._ ”

“It’s okay,” Theo says, touching his cheek, moving his head to look at him. “You’re here now.”

“I shouldn’t have _left,_ ” Stiles whispers. 

“You’re here now.”

“I’m here now,” Stiles echoes, staring at him like he doesn’t understand how he could not remember.  


Theo nods, and kisses him, kisses him, kisses him like he always kisses him, like he could engrain his love in Stiles’ skin, in his mind that couldn’t keep its hold, so that even when he doesn’t remember, he still knows how he is loved. Like he could make certain that Stiles never goes another moment of his life not knowing how much he is loved.  


As though he understands what Theo’s doing, he shakes his head, his cheeks wet. “I-”  


“Hey,” Theo tells him. “It was just your turn to come back, that’s all.”  


-  


“Tell them I love them,” he whispers. “Tell them I miss them, even when I don’t know it.”  


He doesn’t need the way Stiles tightens his hold to know he’s included in this as well.  


“I will,” Theo promises, like he always promises.  


-  


“I think that sometimes I turn to look for you,” Stiles says softly, heading resting on his pillow. He’d readily agreed to Theo’s request to lie down, to lie next to him, like they hadn’t since Stiles had been admitted.  


Theo watches, listening even more intently than usual.  


“I don’t even think I was looking for anything or anyone, actually,” Stiles goes on. “I wasn’t trying to. I think it’s muscle memory. Like I’ve always looked over at you. My body remembers, even when I don’t.”  


Theo’s chest aches, and for once he doesn’t need to stop his own muscle memory as his hand comes up to his husband’s face, his thumb brushing over his cheekbone like he’s done for nearly sixty years.  


“I remember this,” Stiles’ voice breaks, but he says the word _remember_ like it’s the best thing he’s ever done. “What happens when I can’t remember anymore? What will you do?”  


“You know. I’ll be here. I’m not leaving you,” Theo says.  


“Even when I’m not here?”  


“Even then.”  


-  


“Just rest now, love,” he whispers. He knows he should get up, knows he shouldn’t be so close in case Stiles forgets again, but something tells him it won’t happen tonight.  


He lets himself relax against the mattress, like he hasn’t been able to on the one he uses in his own room, lets himself feel that bone deep weariness he carries, because he know that for once, he’ll be able to sleep soundly, sleep like he’s supposed to next to Stiles.  


Stiles doesn’t argue, is likely thinking the same thing as Theo, but he asks, “You’ll be here?”  


“I’ll be here,” Theo tells him. “We can rest now.”  


They can rest now.


End file.
